Juan Carlos Bueno

Meet Juan Carlos Bueno.  He is 8 years old and has advanced Rheumatoid Arthritis. He has been coming to the school for about 1-1/2 years now. He lives with his father and two sisters about 2 miles north of Genesis and one of his sisters brings him on a moped each morning. His mother passed away soon after his birth due to complications during the birth. His father, Santos, works as a farm worker in the fields each day. Juan Carlos is just beginning to learn to use a walker as his Rheumatoid Arthritis is progressively getting worse and his walk is getting more unstable. He is close to non-verbal, saying maybe a few words each day. He does a lot of nods with his head for yes and no and other than that it is difficult for him to communicate anymore. He does the same school work as the others in his class and at times he has homework that his sisters help him with when he gets home. To offset his tuition cost of $13.00 per month, his two sisters come once a week and help to clean Genesis. He is one of 5 students that have a “scholarship” like that to offset the cost of tuition. He is a real joy to have in school and always has a bright smile for us all. His sisters are also very good about attending our monthly parent meetings. They are very involved in the school. 

Being one of the first ones there each morning, he greats the others with his face full of joy as the others start to arrive at school. If you have any interest in helping with Juan Carlos' costs, you can email me back and let me know what your wishes are and I can tell you how to go about sponsoring him. There are sponsorships avaliable for all of the kids that attend Genesis.

Juan Carlos has special place in my heart because I have a cousin Jane in Iowa with a similar degenerative condition and Jane also has the same positive outlook and encouraging spirit that Juan Carlos has. 

When Jane was in her low 30’s she was diagnosed with Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. Not really experiencing any noticeable symptoms for a number of years, but by 1995 she was in a wheelchair and has been using one since.  I try to have some email contact with her once in a while but it is getting harder for her to type now and more and more movements that you and I take for granted are a struggle or impossible for her.

Every day when I look at Juan Carlos, I see Jane setting there smiling back at me. I give thanks to both of them for the encouragement that they give me.